Last week was a bit of a nightmare for me fishing wise, first I had to work on Wednesday instead of fishing the “OAP, Skivers and General Layabouts Match” at Sumners Pond and on Sunday I’d got roped in to fishing for my club – Leatherhead DAS in the Surrey Winter League at Gold Valley. Now, I don’t mind Gold Valley as a fishery but as the weekend approached, the weather forecast for the Aldershot area said:-
Heavy Rain, average wind speeds of 29 MPH with gusts of up to 60 MPH – Lovely !
Whilst I’ve always found that the weather forecasts are usually rubbish, unfortunately on Sunday they were spot on ! Whilst having breakfast in the clubhouse I looked out across Gold lake and said to Ross that as the wind was howling across Gold Lake into the causeway bank, I’d fancy a draw on the sheltered almost wind free canal bank. So, where did I draw ? ………………the old Peg 38 on the causeway bank with the wind and rain smack in my face !
I actually fancied my peg as it is opposite an island and a noted peg in the right conditions. Unfortunately for me, the fish decided that they wanted to be in the open water and not near the island and I really struggled. With the wind blowing as it was, and the fact that I was going to win nothing with “Silvers”, I just set up a “Lead Rod” to fish Luncheon Meat, corn or a T Bag with pellet on the hook. The day didn’t start well either as having eventually managed to find a big enough bomb to reach the island I finally put it a foot or so from the island but as I put the line behind the clip on the spool, the line snapped ! I then had to hand line in about 60 yards of line and go and but another spool of 6lb maxima from Dennis in the on site tackle shop !
The hooter signalled the start of the match and I then sat biteless for the first two hours with the rain landing on my glasses making it almost impossible to actually see either a bite or where I was casting. As we neared the half way point in the match, thankfully the rain stopped, although the wind increased and I had my first fish, a common carp – although not that common in my peg, of about 6lb caught on a large lump of luncheon meat..
One more fish followed before the end, as I was kept entertained by the number of anglers jumping off their boxes to retrieve their caps ! There isn’t much you can write about a match in which you only catch two fish and it was especially frustrating as all those away from the island in my section caught carp – leaving me in last place in the seven peg section with 13lb.
Although I didn't hang about for the results, the Angling Times has just revealed that Joey Clarke won - as I expected with 89-11-0 from the canal bank of Gold. It says he fished Peg 8 but I'm not so sure it wasn't Peg 5 ! Ben Leach was on the point on Bungelow and filled second place with 70-7-0, followed by Simon Keifer who was on the end peg next to the clubhouse in my section and had 66-8-0 an ex Leatherhead teammate Andy Ryan fishing for KC Angling was 4th with 57-4-0 from Bungelow Lake.
Teamwise, there was a suprise win for.........................Dorking ! Banstead finished second and Bordon slipped to 5th which means they might now struggle to qualify for the semi finals with just one round to go. Fortunately the Angling Times only listed the first 6 teams so hopefully nobody will realise that we were last !
Wednesday sees me back on my usual work pattern of every Wednesday off so I will once again be running the usual “OAP, Skivers and General Layabouts” match at Sumners Pond. I’m hoping this time to draw on a few fish this time, so return here on Thursday to see if I did.
